[O/C] Replacing Thermal Interface Material on an HP DV7T Notebook

Replacing Thermal Interface Material on an HP DV7 Notebook.
by S_Wilson


Summary Line

So you have a recent consumer notebook and think you might want to replace the OEM thermal interface material or just give the heat sink fins a deep cleaning. Well, it may be easier than you think!

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http://www.overclockers.com/index.p...n-hp-dv7t-laptop&catid=52:cooling&Itemid=4257http://www.overclockers.com/index.p...n-hp-dv7t-laptop&catid=52:cooling&Itemid=4257



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Thanks,
S_Wilson

Wow! All that hard work for 2 degree reduction!

Although, I have to say, that crappy factory thermal material gets worse and worse over time, I noticed that in my old laptop. In the longrun, it will definitely save you some headaches as far as overheating issues down the road. Great writeup!


Matt

Laptop fans are very closely thermally controlled generally speaking, if you were able to manually set the fan levels i bet it'd be a larger cooling gap.
On the laptop i sold the difference between clean and dirty heatsink wise was only about 2*c, but noise wise it was huge. Dirty, the fan was going almost full blast to hold it at 56. Clean, the fan only had to run 40% to keep it at 54.

That's a good article.

2 things:

Maybe describe how to clean off the old TIM and apply new TIM (bb drop, spread, line, etc). I know it's a minor detail, but it might help someone who never played with TIM before.

Explain any warranty issues that might arise. I personally don't know, but I figure it might be a big issue to some users.

neonblingbling said:

Explain any warranty issues that might arise. I personally don't know, but I figure it might be a big issue to some users.

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It definitely voids your warranty. Any tinkering inside the laptop like that generally does. My best advice, don't waste the money on the warranty or do this tweak after the warranty ends!


Matt

Thank you for reading the article and your comments!

mdcomp said:

Wow! All that hard work for 2 degree reduction!

Although, I have to say, that crappy factory thermal material gets worse and worse over time, I noticed that in my old laptop. In the longrun, it will definitely save you some headaches as far as overheating issues down the road. Great writeup!


Matt

Click to expand...

I have had several of this type of notebook and as most things it gets easier with experience and repetition. The first time I disassembled this model, about 6 months ago, it took close to 2 hours, now it is pretty easy to do in about 45 minutes.

2C is before any curing had taken place so there will probably be a little more reduction in time.

Bobnova said:

Laptop fans are very closely thermally controlled generally speaking, if you were able to manually set the fan levels i bet it'd be a larger cooling gap.
On the laptop i sold the difference between clean and dirty heatsink wise was only about 2*c, but noise wise it was huge. Dirty, the fan was going almost full blast to hold it at 56. Clean, the fan only had to run 40% to keep it at 54.

That's a good article.

Click to expand...

One thing I find aggravating about notebooks in general is lack of control of fan speeds. At least this model of HP allows you to set the fan to "always run" so it is at a low speed and low temps until things get warm then it will ramp up.

mdcomp said:

It definitely voids your warranty. Any tinkering inside the laptop like that generally does. My best advice, don't waste the money on the warranty or do this tweak after the warranty ends!


Matt

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This model does not have any "Warranty Void" stickers anywhere. I have actually not seen that many with the systems I have used.

Your advice is very good because if something gets broken during this process then you will be on your own.

neonblingbling said:

2 things:

Maybe describe how to clean off the old TIM and apply new TIM (bb drop, spread, line, etc). I know it's a minor detail, but it might help someone who never played with TIM before.

Explain any warranty issues that might arise. I personally don't know, but I figure it might be a big issue to some users.

Click to expand...

Good points and something I should have covered.

mdcomp explained warranty issues pretty well.

I didn't think to cover cleaning old TIM and applying new TIM because I thought most around here would know the proper methods. Of course, there are always new people that may not know.

Cleaning was done with Acetone and cue tips followed with Isopropyl Alcohol on a coffee filter. TIM reapplication will vary depending on what TIM is used. Instructions for applying ICD 7 Carat can be found HERE and Arctic Silver 5 can be found HERE.

From what i've read the warranty varies from laptop to laptop.
A dell mini9 for instance can be opened up and put back together without warranty issues, right up till you bust out the soldering iron.
Alienware on the other hand is said to be a real pain about their warranties sometimes. Sometimes if you do whatever it is while on the phone with the company tech you can keep the warranty where otherwise it'd eat it.

Most times if the failure isn't related to what you did you're ok, but if you had a thermal death of a GPU after doing your past (regardless of the reason), you're likely to be out of luck.